CPH:FORUM to Showcase 49 docs including 19 Nordic films and co-productions

A record number of 49 international projects from 103 filmmakers and producers from 33 countries will be pitched to more than 250 international financiers and film professionals at CPH:DOX’s industry event CPH:FORUM.

Among the top companies that have signed up for the annual documentary co-production and co-financing event, are the global platforms Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, the broadcasters DR, Yle, SVT, NRK, RUV, ARTE, BBC, the film studios Participant Media, Amazon Studios, Concordia Studio, Freemantle, A24, and philanthropic foundations such as Sundance Institute, Doc Society, Chicken and Egg Pictures, Catapult, Fritt Ord, among others.

In a statement, organisers said the CPH:FORUM projects consist of “nuanced films, reflecting on the past and future of the non-fiction genre, and the world at large.”

High-profile international filmmakers set to present their latest works include Oscar-nominated Ljubomir Stefanov (Honeyland) with House of Earth, Jessica Kingdon (Ascension) with an Untitled Animal Project, CPHDOX’s 2021 top prize winner Ousmane Samassekou (The Last Shelter) with his new project Dreamscape.

Pitchers from the Nordics include the multi-awarded Virpi Suutari (Aalto, Garden Lovers), Ola Waagen (Inside Fur), John Skoog (Ridge) with his brother Aron Skoog, Louise Unmack Kjeldsen (Fat Front), and Tonislav Hristov (The Good Postman).

For the first time, the eight-title CPH:WIP session for films still looking for gap-financing or a launch pad, will showcase international projects, on top of the usual Nordic works in progress.

Among this year’s Nordic filmmakers selected with their upcoming works are Denmark’s Camilla Magid (Land of Free), Norway’s Håvard Bustnes (Golden Dawn Girls), and Iceland’s Yrsa Roca Fannberg (The Last Autumn).

Juan Palacios and Sofie Husum Johannesen who pitched the Danish doc Before the Storm at CPH:FORUM 2021, will be back with their climate- focused documentary, at a later stage in production, while Norwegian animator Julian Nazario Vargas will present the anticipated live action/animated doc Adil co-directed by Adil Khan.

The CPH:WIP projects will be spotlighted Monday March 20, as a preamble to the CPH:FORUM pitches March 21 to 23.

Another eight CHANGE projects from Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan that took part in a co-production training programme, will be pitched March 20.

Commenting on her 2023 programme, Tereza Simikova, CPH:DOX Head of Industry & Training said: “In a time of increasing polarisation and radicalisation of society, it’s inspiring to see filmmakers having complicated, nuanced conversations around such timely issues as the legacy of colonialism, inequality and free speech, but also cancel culture and the role of activism, arts and science in today’s society. Remarkably, they find also a great deal of hope, humour and beauty while doing so,” she said.

Full line-up of Nordic docs and co-productions at CPH:FORUM and CPH:WIP.

CPH:FORUM:

• Almost Human by Ola Waagen (NO/DK)
  Produced by Bjarte Mørner Tveit (Von Mørner, Norway) with Peter Engel (Wingman Media, Denmark)
  
  Logline: Born in Norway late in the 80s, celebrity Ola has a funny, touching, and mysterious life. Sold as an infant, Ola rose to fame after he moved from a zoo to an apartment in the city. Here, young Ola was a member of a human family while working as an actor in theatre and TV. One day Ola vanishes. Almost Human investigates Ola’s mysterious disappearance: Is he still alive? Where is he? Can anyone help him?
• Confidential, US/DK
  Produced by Ross Levine, US and Sigrid Dyekjaer for Real Lava, Denmark
• Generation by David Borenstein (DK/UK)
  Produced by Helle Faber, Denmark
  
  Logline: In the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian state implements a new national patriotic curriculum that begins to transform classrooms across the country. In many communities, a sense of isolation and confusion starts to creep in.
• Once upon a Time in a Forest by Virpi Suutari (FI)
  Produced by Virpi Suutari for Euphoria, Finland.
  
  Logline: Documentary film focusing on young people who are fighting for one of the last coniferous forest areas in Europe. It's a morality play, a love story of a younger generation whose main location and object of love is the Finnish forest.
• Only on Earth by Robin Petré (DK/ES)
  Produced by Signe Skov Thomsen and Malene Flindt Pedersen for Hansen & Pedersen, Denmark
  
  Logline: A journey deep into one of Europe’s hottest fire zones, Galicia, where wild horses roam the mountains under the watch of local cowboys. These horses are excellent at fire prevention, but now they are vanishing in the clash between humans and nature.
• Opening Night, By Aron Skoog and John Skoog (SE)
  Produced by Aron Skoog and John Skoog for Filmögon, Plattform Produktion
  
  Logline: The film follows the entertainment team that works behind the scenes during an NBA game: behind, in front of & around the court. The film will trace the anachronistic connections & intertwining of early cinema, vaudeville & American sports.

• Our Love by Hannah Reinikainen and Lia Hietala (SE/FI/DE)
  Produced by STORY, Sweden and Napafilm, Finland.
  
  Logline: Our Love follows a motley crew of teenagers. They are 14 years old and the world seems full of opportunities. But suddenly puberty hits and during one night something happen that will change everything.
• The Eukrainian by Viktor Nordenskiöld (SE/FR/UA)
  Produced by Viktor Nordenskiöld for Freetown Films, Sweden, Christian Popp for Tag Film France and Olga Beskhmelnytsina.
  
  Logline: The war is still raging, but some people already prepare for the next step. The Eukrainian follows the woman who is leading Ukraine into the EU, Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna, who herself in a war government, searching for clues.
• The Lions at the River Tigris by Ahmed Zaradasht (NO)
  Produced by Thorvald Nilsen for Screen Story.
  
  Logline: Mosul, the promised Caliphate of Isis, was the most hated city in the world, and it paid the ultimate prize of liberation. Can people heal their broken souls?

• The Menopause Mystery by Louise Unmack Kjeldsen (DK)
  Produced by Malene Flindt Pedersen for Hansen & Pedersen.
  It’s like menopausal women around the world have been struck by a mysterious virus. Many of them suffer from insomnia, depression and brain fog. Now researchers have begun to study the women’s brains. The answers they are finding are unsettling.
• Truth.com by Tonislav Hristov, (FI/BG)
  Produced by Kaarle Aho for Making Movies, with Soul Food, Bulgaria.
  Logline: A documentary about fakes that fly while facts stay put. A female journalist takes on fake news and Russian trolls in the Balkans. Follow the money, find the sources.
• Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other by Jacob Perlmutter (UK/DK)
  Produced by Manon Ouimet for Manon & Jacob, UK with Signe Byrge Sørensen for Final Cut for Real, Denmark.
  
  Logline: When an unrecognised artist breaks her leg, her famous husband must become her career. But when her resentment of his success surfaces, the couple strive for equanimity while facing the existential weight of mortality in their 70s and 80s.

CPH:WIP Nordic projects:

• Adil By Adil Khan and Julian Nazario Vargas (NO/NL).
  Produced by Eirik Smidesang Slåen and Elisabeth Opdal for Imaginær Film, and Submarine.
  
  Logline: Hard-hitting animated documentary, anchored in a deeply personal transformation. A raw, direct account about a life driven by the extreme; told with a great desire and conviction to discover the keys to handle tragedy, violence, depression and fame.
• Before the Storm by Juan Palacios and Sofie Husum Johannesen (DK)
  Produced by Kasper Lykke Schultz for Elk Film, Denmark
  
  Logline: despite the looming prospect of a climate change-induced storms wiping out the island of Mandø, its 28 inhabitants seem oblivious to the existential threat. Out of step with modern times, they fight to remain on the island.

• Fighting Demons with Dragons By Camilla Magid (DK)
  Produced by Heidi Elise Christensen for Final Cut for Real.
  Logline: Coming-of-age documentary film about what it’s like to be an outsider, how to find yourself, and how to gain a sense of belonging - all through imagination and play.
• Phantoms of Sierra Madre by Håvard Bustnes (NO/FI)
  Produced by Christian Aune Falch and Håvard Bustnes for UpNorth, Norway.
  
  Logline: A Danish eccentric former rock star follows in the footsteps of his childhood hero, who tried to find the last Apaches in Mexico in 1937, but when he discovers an Apache skull in his attic in Oslo, he realises that the project is problematic.

• The Ground Beneath Our Feet by Yrsa Roca Fannberg (IS/PL)
  Produced by Hanna Björk Valsdóttir for Akkeri Films, with Staron Film, Poland.
  Logline: Show me the beauty and the grief of the old people at Grund! From the Earth we come and to Her we shall return.

For the full list of CPH:FORUM projects, check https://cphdox.dk/

The CPH:DOX festival is due to open March 15 with the Greenlandic/Danish film Twice Colonized by Lin Alluna, which world premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival.